Contamination ???

[Bearcarver]

Ok guys, I need to know if the following has ever happened to anyone here, and if anyone knows what it is:

A buddy of mine just smoked a small piece of belly bacon. He said he did exactly everything that I do (curing, smoking, etc). He said when he pulled the piece, he noticed three little spots on the side that was down. He said the spots were less than 1/4" in diameter, they were a bluish green, and they weren't there before he put the cure on. He took a sharp knife & cut a circle around them & popped them completely off. He said they were not deep (less than 1/16" deep). He said he put the piece in the fridge overnight before slicing, and no other spots showed up since.

I'm asking this because he has no computer. I told him I would see what I could find out. I have no pictures, because he has no digital camera. I'd like to know what to tell him---He has been my best friend since 10th grade, and went to 'Nam the same time I did. If I had the money we spent on beer in the last 43 years----WOW!


Thanks,
Bearcarver

 

[badfrog]

Hey Bearcarver...
that is a new one for me; it seems odd that it was in "spots" - if the process went bad, I would expect discoloration to be more uniform. I don't know of any way to "know" that its ok after cutting out the spots (except to eat it, which seems kind of risky). Hopefully someone else has a good explanation of this...I am curious about it. did he take any qview of it?

 

[Bearcarver]

I told him it couldn't be that the process went bad, and my guess is maybe there was some kind of little specs of bacteria on his smoker rack. He was thinking the same thing, which is why he cut a circle with some clearance from the "Dots", and disposed of the cut out circles.

 

[Bearcarver]

Bump back to New Posts.

 

[got14u]

could it have been some blood clots that he didn't notice?

 

[athabaskar]

Personally, I have a policy against eating anything with bluish green spots on it, except for cheese. Ain't died yet from the cheese, so it may be OK after all.

 

[Bearcarver]

I've had bruises in Salmon already, and the red blood spots just turned into black spots, so I doubt it would have been that.
I wish I had pictures of the spots from him, or would have seen them myself, but he explained them pretty good.

BC

 

[bill in mn]

Did he use tender quick? it says to keep at 36*-40* any less and it doesn't work and any more it doesn't work either.Got to be real exact with this. that might be a source to check.


From Morton's web site. http://www.mortonsalt.com/products/m...nderquick.html

CAUTION: This curing salt is designed to be used at the rate specified in the formulation or recipe. It should not be used at higher levels as results will be inconsistent, cured meats will be too salty, and the finished products may be unsatisfactory. Curing salts should be used only in meat, poultry, game, salmon, shad and sablefish. Curing salts cannot be substituted for regular salt in other food recipes. Always keep meat refrigerated (36° to 40°F) while curing.

 

[pignit]

I'm thinkin first thing maybe a lot of humidity in the smoker and it dripped some at the bottom leaving spots. Not sure why they would be green unless there was something goin on with the salt in the cure and the metal he hung it with. Just a wild guess. This one may be too far out there to figure out unless it's happened to someone else.

 

[Bearcarver]

Yeah, it's a tuff one. He said he did exactly like I wrote down, and I always use the exact amount of TQ. I'm still thinking there was some bacterial specs on his racks, and that transferred to his meat, but I was hoping somebody else ran into this before.

BC